Original Orient Adventures

Jack of all, master of none, better than master of one

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I’m a father and grandad just trying to keep up with the economy and start new tasks/skills I consider my self a jack of all trades and I love learning different things
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  • Infection By bike?

    I purchased a electric bike to save money and cut down the wear on my vehicle. Now I believe I’m cursed as I have already had a flat and I have been cut off which resulted in a crash.Even better I ended up missing work for my Favorite place the Emergency Room.

    Electric bike worth it or nah? That is the question I have at the moment after a slow healing from the cluster of unfortunate events that have happened to me these last few months. I have driven my bike a few times and in 1 month I had a flat that took me out. I stopped riding the bike since I didn’t make the time to fix it until months later but by now I have new gear. I purchased puncture resistance tube overlays and a new helmet full head cover ATV/motorcycle style helmet. And some biker gloves, I know sounds over kill for a bicycle but this bike goes up to 30mph and I’m traveling next to cars going 40-50 mph. After I installed the new tube and puncture liner and put the wheels back on, and I was ready to go

    Now my work week is Tuesday thru Saturday and I started riding again on the Friday before the week of my accident so that would be about 5 days of riding and then bam out again. Now on Thursday May 9th I was riding to work and had a normal ride time about 20 minutes on the bike with throttle assist. But that is not when it happened, it was on my way home just like the time i got a pin nail in my back tire and had to walk home. This time I got further home than when my bike tire when flat. I was basically on the straight a way home main road. Now if you live in Sacramento and in the more suburban area of northeast Sacramento before south and Carmichael county. This main road is Watt ave one large street spanning almost to Elk Grove and up to Roseville almost about 40mph max most of the time from a regular street to a 3 way each side.

    Lets set up the scene I’m riding with traffic going north on watt and coming up to watt and Fair oaks a busy intersection with 2 turn lanes and a bike lane that goes thru the middle of right turn and straight not to safe if the drivers do not pay attention like they are suppose to. I just rode over bridge above the American River with merging and off going traffic and a on ramps of cars coming on and past both areas with no issues. As I’m riding the bike going 28mph and coming up to the intersection and watching my areas, blind spots and cars ahead. Im approaching the intersection I see a green truck just comes into my focus, quick glance at lights and the angle of truck I realize he is changing lanes coming my way and is not slowing down, as i’m coming into the lane that separates into the bike and turning lane and this green truck is rushing to get into the turn lane and didn’t check his blind spot again as he moved. Look I am a big guy not huge but a good size dad bod on a larger framed electric bike 4in wheels and full suspension. But nope no care just like good luck Im moving over, I believe this guy had to have seen me in his rear view mirror and see me go down. Now I didn’t crash into his truck but i had to hit the brakes hard and turn the handle bars to the sidewalk direction to avoid falling into traffic and or getting ran over.

    Now I do not know about you but for some awful reason as Im falling, the heightened senses kick in you know the adrenaline time seams to slow down and I’m able to change a bit of my body position.kinda cool to feel, then the accident realization kicks in time returns and I’m watching the truck turn and disappear. No car stoped and no one said, you good? Instead I’m just cursing and yelling in my helmet. As i get up and pull the 90lbs bike up and stand it up on kick stand. Have to do a body check, hands good but gloves scraped on palm,+1 hand protection, now Arms -1 no jacket or long sleeve huge road burn above elbow. Head +1 slight scratches on face mask, that is good new all the new things i bought paid off. Now lets check the legs, left legs slightly scratches and small pain on knee cap maybe a bruise, right leg in pain, the inside knee was under the frame and with me on it to. Slight scrap on the new cap, but a lot of internal pain, paints are scrapped up and have new holes from cement plus headphones in pocket but they work. Ok total damage count road burn scraps and internal leg pain and maybe continued back pain.

    small tangent yes back pain i have been battling low discs sciatica pain shooting through my legs and pan to walk sit stand and whatever else that is another post.

    now you have a idea of my thoughts i already have low back leg pain and now i just crashed so possible made my existing injury worse. Im just watching and taking mental notes on my leg and back injuries. This crash happened on the 9th of May 2025 Friday just to give a time line. Now as im gettin my head together I’m like well I’m sore and i still need to get home. Now like a good kid Learner when you fall off just get back on and ride again but now I‘m not peddling as much since my right leg is killing me since I landed and crushed my knee when I went down. Every time i peddled my legs go up and down and the knees bends so does the pain.

    Ok I know I’m stubborn and my wife defiantly points it out. As i arrive home and come in my wife notices I’m wincing in pain as move more than normal. So I tell her what happened and of course in her ever so wide knowledge asked me if i was going to go to the emergency room? Me being me growing up in the country mountain area, I’m use to getting injured and dealing with a the problem. I tell her hey this is just my back acting up and my knee is bruised ill be fine just going to keep notes mentally.

    Saturday the 10th still in pain hard to walk right so i just move easily, end the day go home and clean my elbow since the black part on my elbow was not coming clean in the shower. So i was like ok get the hydrogen peroxide and started to pour on elbow and oh wow the bubble and stinging. Now I grew up with the generation of if it isn’t hurting it isn’t working, now that is funny since we know more now about good and bad germs. But after i dabbed the wound dry i saw the blackened skin pealing so i ripped it off and oh that hurt but now no more dirt and germs.

    Sunday Monday are my house days and family time so i can mostly take is easy thru the day and rest. Knee still hurting and limping not able to put much pressure on my right leg cause of it. My wife as many times as i know to listen to her but again I didn’t listen and go get checked out.Tuesday comes around leg feels worse and now I am noticing a larger red area. Ok now Im thinking this looks like it might be infected but i have to get to work as I’m the bread winner right now. Now this Tuesday was a challenge as I’m not really feeling ok and and my leg is killing me and now i feel it even worse by every slight side step hurts like no other. I pull up my pant leg show one of my coworkers and he was like yeah that might be infected, is it hot?- not really it is warmer than the rest and swollen. Luckily I’m able to bare it and make it through the day. On my way home i call my twin brother since he has a lot of experience with wounds and healing after he helped our mom recover from a few surgeries and he had a few as well, guess what he was like you need to go get checked it has been getting worse and getting hot in the area. I head home first let my wife know that my leg is to bad and i need to go in. I’m going to the Emergency room at Kaiser down the street from my house that is convenient.

    I don’t like the ER as they Seem to bee about moving people in and out. I did get called back quickly and they did the usual asking question getting measurements and the basic evaluation but this was quicker than normal. I saw the doctor with in a few minutes getting called back and he looks at the leg moves my knee joints around. Ok Good news your knee doesn’t seem broken but we will get and X-ray to check. Now after the 2 hr wait for X-ray results they are just like yeah we didn’t see any breaks just looking like cellulitis infection of the skin. Just like any infection if it get to the bones it will be bad. The prescription i was sent home with was called cefadroxil: generic for duricef. This is a antibiotic and usually works but I’m in a different case as i believe we barley got to the infection before it started to get really bad. So this antibiotic might have helped as it didn’t get to my bones. I was able to get a work note for Wednesday and Thursday and those days i really was trying to get better. Keeping my leg up and trying to stay off of my right leg.

    Guess what it is now Friday and i have been feeling like the infection was getting worse and it was getting harder and harder to walk. Oh and guess what i have not been eating food as i have been puking at night or just a little after i tried eating. So I should have listened to my wife again as she was asking are you going to go back to the Er? On Friday i called my work told them I can’t make it as I’m getting worse and have had a fever. After I dropped my son off at school i went home and told my wife I am going back to the Er as it is not getting better and the small red spot on my knee has now spreed down my leg and all the spots in red is feeling hot. So back to the Wonderfull land of the ER, now I’m like i was here 2 days ago and the infection is getting worse.

    This time i get called back and do the basic checks and the knee movement but this the doctor orders a huge blood panel and more X rays. Now if the question in your head is why another X-ray? I believe it is to see if the bone has gotten infected and that is a negative no bone infection no brake. All good, right? No now they have finally did what i believe should have happened the first time. Now they are going to be keeping me over night in the extended Er wing. Now they have he IV set up in my arm and I’m getting some fluids in first and then the antibiotics. They have me on Iv antibiotics and when that was over they would give me a pill antibiotic and keep that cycle all night. When the Doctors asked why I waited I responded with, i was told in about 2 days i should start feeling better. Now on the third day of this antibiotic i am taking is not working and I’m am now here again

    After the night with IV Antibiotic and pill antibiotic I woke up and was actually hungry. Now I’m not gonna lie the hospital food has increased at Kiaser my favorite was the fruit given. I asked the nurse practitioner when I would be discharged this is around 9am. The nurse came back and was like the doctors coming to check. The new morning doctor looked at my states and leg said good to go. She cancelled the 12pm antibiotic and let me go. The exiting prescription was for cefoxadril and some probiotics. Now I’m kinda broke so I only picked up the antibiotics and skipped the probiotics. Probiotics would be useful for replenishing the gut biome since the antibiotics will kill out some gut bacteria. But oh well I’ll survive for now. Now the fun part remembering to take the medicine as prescribed. My leg feels better able to put pressure on it now and the redness is gone all I see is a very dry skin but I’m feeling better sorry the only thing I could say is stay on top of your symptoms and fight for your self some doctors will just get you in and out so advocate for your self.

    wow talk about back fire get a electric bike to save money and mileage on the car and now missing work and 2 ER visits. More money gone and further in the hole. But i have my health and family to keep me up thanks for reading and the support.

    Pants down redness up
    Look at that hot leg it is red hot
    I let the doctor draw on me would you?

  • Bike Math? Lets go

    OriginalOrient origins

    The name was a result of my youngest son, he changed my old Xbox live account name to OrientalPower6 so I took OriginalOrient, since he was six and at the time it worked for his account and when i played with him im the Original you know. What does it have to do with anything? It does not and I think that is the funny part about my image that im creating with the user name and my online persona. Ok lets get back on track and continue with my original stream of thought.

    Bike math?

    In this ever growing economy and not so much increase of pay, this is just a quick view of my understanding for this current world situation. I do not believe this trickle down system that they have in place works since it barley reaches the lower class. Prices are going up and pay is not increasing as fast as the inflation. Back in the day 1 person could support a house now it takes 2 or more working full time just to make sure their is food on the table and someone to watch the kids. I don’t agree with how hard we have to work to get by. This is a quick view in my thoughts.

    I have a 2016 Ford Expidition EL Limited and this baby gets about 16 mpg city not great but for size and motor not to shabby. Yes bigger vehicle means more money but with a house of 4 kids and my wife kinda need the room. The price of gas hits the pocket when you wish it didn’t. I Purchased a Electric bike stage 3 from our big giant internet retailer. On the Frame of the Bike is called It Stands 1000w rear drive 48v 30ah lithium, it can get up to 30mph with pedal assist and about 80 miles total range. This was suppose to save me some money. Unfortunately like the saying goes takes money to make money and in some way for me is was spend money to save more money. Does that make since? Maybe not but I think it would work in the long run.

    Now if I am correct in my math I believe the bike was about 1250.00 and I drive to and from work twice a day for 5 days at 12miles their and back times 2 times a day at 24miles a day for 5 days comes to about 120 miles a week and if my truck is 16mpg that would be 7.5 gallons of gas a week. Now fuel prices have been going down but in California the price just ain’t right. So lets say $3.50 a gallon for fuel at average and 7.5 gallons a week to drive. Now by 4 weeks comes to 30 gallons and their is 12 months in a year the math comes to 360 gallons for a year saved in gas. That don’t sound write to me but lets keep going. So lets say gas stays about $3.50 a gallon and 360 gallons in a year wow approximately $1260.00 a year in gas just to work and back, this does not include the family trips to get grandkids shopping and whatever the family needs. This is gonna be about the to and from work price and can I save some money and the wear on the truck.

    so I have rode my bike and the mileage is similar to the drive maybe a little shorter since I am able to cut through shopping center lots. Lets just say since I am only doing this trip to work and back not on my lunch so it is not a lot of miles so that would mean more days. On average i am riding about 6 miles to work and back comes to only about 12 miles a day. If we compare the gas prices and the miles per gallon would come to about 0.75 mpg and at $3.50 a gallon this would be $2.63 a day of saved gas mileage. So in order to break even on the from just going to work and back, at the approximate cost of $1250.0 on sale. The total breaks down to 475 days of riding. Now if we take the days and multiply by the miles a day comes to 5700 miles need to ride wow that is a lot. Now if you include the new tubes, tire liner and helmet and other accessories this comes out to approximately 500 days or more and a lot of miles.

    I am determined to keep this up and make the bike worth it by doing this even though it might not make since. Wish me luck and thank you for reading hope you enjoyed and please if you want comment on your thoughts about this.

  • Spinal Radiculopathy

    Hey I’m back and writing this with now 3 years of medicine and nothing really new. The last time I was writing about this I believe I was starting my new prescription. Naltraxone 5mg is a altered prescription of a larger pill used for alcohol withdrawal. This is a useful medicine the down fall is I have to order from a different state and to have it made is around $90 for 2 months not to bad but I wonder if I could find a compounding pharmacy in town. Now with all the medicine I’m on from Ibuprofen 800mg Tylenol 500mg, Meloxicam 15mg Pregabalin100mg, Nortriptyline 50mg Duloxetine 30mg, this a bit of medicine for a 34 year old I think but back pain, if you know you know.

    Ok so here is the break down Ibuprofen and meloxicam are anti inflammatory, so for swelling and Tylenol is used for pain as well as the nsaids(non steroid anti inflammation) Morton Advil and melexocam are nsaids. Next up Duloxetine or Cymbalta an anxiety and muskeletol symptom relief. Ok now I believe I would not need this medicine if i could just get rid of this pain, if only pain didn’t cause depression and anxiety about pain. Let’s take a look at Nortriptyline (palmor) another form of antidepressant that also shows signs of helping joint pain. Pregabalin or Lyrica considered a control substance for some reason not to sure but I have to present my ID every time I have to pick up. The only reason I think it is controlled is it alters attitude and may cause severe thoughts if stoped or prescription strength drop with out doctor oversight. I’m taking all these so I don’t feel pain as much pain as I normally do. Even on this medicine i still have really bad days and it does not seem like they are helping.

    For a year i was doing two jobs my main day job and I got a second job as a shelf stocker, Someone who wheels the boxes out to the grocery store aisles. Lifting boxes and organizing the shelf’s to make them look good for the next day customers. This job involved a lot of bending standing walking and lifting so to say if I was not active I would say otherwise. The only thing i was lacking was sleep so maybe my body was not getting enough sleep to rest up and feel better as you think. The doctors said to get more active and do physical therapy and that would help. The thing is some of the therapy exorcises would not feel to great or hurt so make it hard to keep going. By doing this second job I ended up loosing weight and hitting my target for weight. Like the Doctors say if you loose weight, Our bmi (body max index) I believe out of date measurement. At around 185 to 190 lbs being very active and trying to be happy. I was still feeling in pain at days and kinda feeling bad since I was in pain and i know my attitude is not the nicest when in pain.

    This is something i have a been trying to get over and get be hind me so i can spend some good quality time with my wife and kids. What is the doctors meaning for Quality of life, as I feel my Quality of life has been in a downward spiral as I’m not able to do as much as I was able to multiple years ago. You know as I am not Able to lift or run not even really play with my grand kids, yes grandkids. Just trying to get work and house work done then trying to tend to kids and play with them, makes it hard when your legs wants to fall off. Or you all of a sudden cant pick them up what do you do what do you say to the doctors without sounding like a pill fiend when all is that you want is to feel normal. Thank you for your interest

  • Spinal Radicalapathy

    Yes this is a spin on this medical diagnoses I have been given for my chronic back pain. Man oh Man Back pain with the triple ending and teeth grinding. What is this Spinal Radiculopathy basically it is when you have back pain and their is actually no cause that can bee seen and or diagnosed precisely in my personal case of having this diagnoses. When i googled this I receive this discretion from hopkinsmedicine.org. Radiculopathy describes a range of symptoms produced by the pinching of a nerve root in the spinal column. The pinched nerve can occur at different areas along the spine (cervical, thoracic or lumbar). Symptoms of radiculopathy vary by location but frequently include pain, weakness, numbness and tingling.

    So this is after years of going threw the process of trying to get better, feel better and just be happier. This is something as a 31 year old at the moment of typing this in the year of 2022 who’s is a father and a grandparent and has had a hard time feeling that I was their for my children and now my oldest children are having babies and I honestly feel that I am not in the greatest shape as i could be. We have been threw a very interesting experience with the covid pandemic and surprisingly I actually came out with a little bit less weight around my body but all that changed was food and mindset.
    Yes i know that this is not the best type of writing to read but i feel this is my type of story to tell and my very basic writing skills I am sorry in advance.
    Back in June of 2021 i weighed in at 240 LBS this was the biggest i have been and recently going threw all the mental anguish that has been caused by the media work and fear of what is going to be happening in the future with all this new and scary type of pandemic. I know now that what caused my inflation of weight also caused my mental anguish and to having panic attacks on a constant almost daily basis. Now their was a lot of going on and a whole lot of not going on at the same time. How is this and how can that be? I don’t know but that is how it seemed I barely remember the middle to end of 2021. My wife and i were some of the lucky ones to have a job that is considered important to stay open during the whole covid shut down. I my self work for a lending institute and my wife runs a restaurant. We are both managers in our fields and always working it seems and having to go out and work deal with the public even though their is preventatives in place IE masks, shields, cleaning, 6 feet separation. This did cause a bunch of anxiety for my wife my self and family in general plus we were able to finally get a diagnoses for my wife that she has celiac disease and a IBS . This is something that we had to get on top of and figure out. This is what helped with the loss of weight and what the doctors said is causing my pain. Well I lost that extra weight and yes i feel better but the pain did not subside like they thought.
    Around 2022 i went back to get help for the pain and nerve issues I have been having down the legs and through the hips. Fun stuff this is just my personal Experience and not medical advice. I did do what they said go to acupuncture, P.T.(physical therapy),use a tenz unit, and chiropractor. First off P.T. Works but when some of the movements hurt more than they helped it was hard to keep at it. A Tenz unit or a type of nerve impulse blocker by sending in small currents to disrupt it. The chiropractor could be nice but the one i saw was a soft pressure adjuster I call them the smaller built technician that uses a table press and nothing seems to work with that plus the treatment plan for like. 65 visits in in 90 days each visit like 50 bucks no thank you. So far i do some stretches from physical therapy and others to try and feel. Better but it is mostly pain and little days of little pain.
    As i am righting this now February 15 2023 same issues going on and i have been using more braces ie back brace, knee braces and even these sciatic knee braces over the others to help shut off the extreme nerve pain. Now it helps with walking upright and feeling good but does not completely get rid of pain.
    My doctor for chronic pain management type of care is trying something new for the chronic pain. This prescription is a micro dosage of a larger script and has to be made at a compounding pharmacy. These are a pharmacy’s that have the license to take heavy narcotic medicine and or there’s and combine to smaller and or other ways to use the medicine besides pill, cream,injection, and so one. This all depends on the type of license they carry.
    I just received my new prescription today and says take in the morning and i am like i want to get it in my system now since it takes about 2 to 3 months before full effect. their is a down fall to taking at night possible night mares. So lets see how this goes with the first night.
    This is part of my story at the time thank you.

  • The Devil in Coins?

    On this random Thursday at the pawn shop we can see some interesting customers now this one is a interesting case. We see a customer through the double doors that are magnetic locked and one safety feature for protection on heads up. This customer comes up to the window and asked if we take coins? Now this is just another customer coming in asking basic questions about the items we take. Yes as a pawn shop we mainly take U.S. 1964 and earlier coins 90% silver content. Normal procedure grab id get info customer heritage and height and whatever is on the id for DOJ(Department of Justice) reporting. Ask for the coins thinking it would be older coins rare maybe valuable.
    Oh boy the coins he gave what a hoot, puts a small hand-full of coins in the metal pass through tray and all were quarters. Now as i am examining the coins i notice that they are not the types of Quarters we are looking for. Now get this they all had the copper on the outside rim at the ridges and that is a easy give away that they are not silver. Not to mention that the coins are all 2020 and newer and a few nickels.
    “Unfortunately sir we are not able to take these coins in as they are not the types our company is looking for. If you would like i can trade them for the face value if you have a dollar or more.”
    Now my customer looks a little disheveled but I’m in a pawn shop I see the highs of people to the lows. Now no judging a book i have seen a man pull a stack of money looking like a homeless person. We go by the never judge a book by its cover. Unfortunately we opened this book and got a nice story out of it. Now my customer is like what do you mean you can’t take them.
    “Don’t you see the devil on the face of that nickel and the three headed devil on the quarters?” “
    “Sorry sir I do not see the devil and unfortunately we can not take them.”
    His response
    “No look at that face it is the devil,”
    Now I’m looking at this nickel and it is just the normal face just drawn differently for the new series of nickel that they are doing to represent heritage or places like the Quarters.
    “No man don’t you see the devil face in them thats what makes them valuable.,
    “No sir sorry not for us,”
    “What you don’t believe?”
    “Sorry sir we can not take them for numismatic value as they are just face right value right now.
    Ok man”
    He walks out the double doors and my coworkers are like what?
    “Did he say he has devil coins?”
    I am like “yeah he said the devil was on the faces. Unfortunately i did not see them in the coins.”
    my coworker was hey your customer is coming back in and he has a larger item.
    Oh boy what do we got now?
    Now as we are ringing the customer in we see a larger box in his arms and I’m like “what do you have for us now sir.” Pulls out this larger rectangular box with the picture of the New Family Bible. Now this was still in box and in good condition as he is brings the book out I’m like
    “Sir we do not take in books.”
    “No you will take this book in as it is a collector it has other stories that are not in the Bible not in your bible”
    “Ok sir but we do not take in books”
    “You will take this one it has the stories of Ezekiel,”
    “No sir unfortunately we can not take it in and most Bibles might have those stories in them or others.
    “No man this is rare I bet is does not have this scripture in it”
    “Sorry sir it might it might not I do not know but we have to take a pass on the book.”
    “What you say your not a believer that is why you do not see?”
    “No sir sorry we just can’t take in the book.”
    Have a good day
    As he is walking out he yells your not believers.
    And that was just a ten or 15 minute interaction I found it funny.

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